Tartans Receive Bid to NCAA Playoffs

Nov. 12 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – As announced to the public Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans will be playing for an NCAA Football Championship. This is the sixth time the Tartans have made the playoffs dating back to 1978 and the first since the 1990 season. Preliminary round action starts Saturday, November 18, and game time is set for 12:00 p.m. Carnegie Mellon will host Millsaps at Gesling Stadium.

Carnegie Mellon, who finished the regular season undefeated for the fifth time in school history, defeated Thiel College 14-7 on Saturday to move to 10-0. The Tartans were selected to the playoffs through a pool B bid which is given to those institutions in conferences that don’t qualify for an automatic qualifier or are an independent.

Millsaps (Miss.) College earned a bid by defeating Trinity (Texas) University 34-12 on November 11 to earn an automatic bid out of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The Majors are 7-3 on the year and finished the SCAC with a 6-0 record. The SCAC Championship is their first since 1996 and this is their first NCAA appearance since 1975.

"It's exciting, it's been 16 years since we've made the national tournament,”" commented Coach Lackner on making the field of 32. "It's awfully exciting for the coaches and the players. We're all gathered here together and we enjoyed the moment."

Tickets will be sold at the gate at a cost of $8 for adults and $4 for students who present their school ID.